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"I was bewildered," Liesel said. "I was told our homeland had been attacked by some evil people. Everybody was very gloomy and they were always whispering about things I didn't understand."
A farmer offered Liesel and her mother shelter in a cramped, shodden room in his home. Word reached them that Fritz's U-boat had been torpedoed. They also learned Mr. Steffens had been captured by the Allies and was being "tortured" in a "de- Nazifi-cation" camp. Liesel later discovered her fether and other Nazi leaders were taken to liberated concentration camps and forced to study remnants of the horror they had inflicted.
"German mothers and wives were supposed to make the ultimate sacrifice without crying and complaining," Liesel said. "But I saw my mother with red eyes a lot.
"I thought everything was my fault. Maybe somehow I hadn't been good enough." A year later Liesel and her
their home. But their trials were
far from over. Starvation and poverty were rampant in war-crippled Germany. Mrs. Steffens slowly traded most of their expensive furniture, rugs, paintings and clothing for food. She even exchanged Liesel's favorite doll-house for a Christmas goose.
Fritz suddenly reappeared in 1949. He had escaped his sinking ship and spent the remainder of the war as a British prisoner.
Soon after, Mr. Steffens returned home too, but he was no longer the father Liesel remembered. Her proud, handsome hero was replaced by a sagging, broken old man who brocded often and had much less time for her. She did not know he had been indicted and was awaiting trial in Nuremberg.
In 1950 the family took a trip to the ocean to help Mr. Steffens regain his strength. Liesel and her father resumed their long walks together. One morning Mr. Stiffens turned to his eight-year-old daughter and recited a familiar theme.
"Germany will be strong again," he promised her. "It's up to you to make it so."
As Liesel skipped happily ahead, he crumpled into the sand. Liesel ran to help him, but the heart attack Mr. Steffens suffered had been brutal and swift.
"My father, my hero, my idol was dead," she said softly, eyes glistening.
The next few weeks were a blur for Liesel. With her father gone and her brother too old to five at home, she became the focus of her mother's attention. They rented rooms in their sprawling home for extra money. Slowly life regained some semblance of normality.
In the spiing of 3 851, Liesel's life changed forever. The heavy winter snows had finally melted, and nine-year-old Liesel took advantage of a warm, pleasant day to play hopscotch. Absorbed in the game, she barely noticed the stranger walking toward her.
"Kleine, wo wohnst du?" he asked. "Little girl, where do you Hver
and wondered if it was safe to respond. The stranger reminded
her of her father, she decided, with his blue suit, brie&ase and strong, kindly face. But she was puzzled by the strange little cap he wore on the back of his head.
She smiled at him and pointed to her house. The stranger nodded as if he knew it well. He had lived in the house next door, he said. His parents had run a clothing shop downstairs. A great man had saved his life there during Kristallnachty he added.
KrisMljiacht? Liesel repeated silently. The stranger must have noticed her blank expression because he paused beside her.
In November 1938 Adolf Hitler ordered all Jewish property destroyed, he explained. As I^esei contemplated the meaning of "Jewish property," the stranger painted a gruesome picture of a hateful mob that broke into his house and slaughtered his parents in front of him. They dragged him onto the second-floor balcony and flung him into the air as if he were a paper airplane instead of a nine-year-old boy. He was sure he was going to die.
But at the last moment another neighbor rushed forward
and caught him. As f\imiture, glass and clothing rained down on the cobblestones around them, the man smuggled him to safety.
"Now I live in Israel," finished the stranger. "But I came back to thank the man who saved my life."
Liesel's mind was spinning. This was the first she had heard of Israel, Kristallnacht or little boys being killed in her beautiful homeland. But she was sure of one thing.
"That man was my fether!" she said excitedly, grabbing the stranger's hand. Wouldn't her mother be proud to see one more example of what an incredible man Mr. Steffens, the great humanitarian, had been?
Happier than she had been since before her father died, Liesel burst into her living room
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